Insight 5776-09: Yitzchak's Directive

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Study Question

1) In that Yishmael did teshuva, we may wonder why Yitzchak directed Yaakov to go to marry one of Lavan's daughters and did not send him to marry one of Yishmael's daughters as Esav actually did. One possibility may be that Yitzchak did not want any influences on Yaakov's family from the family of the wife of Yaakov, which would occur if Yaakov lived close to his wife's family. Another possibility may be that there was something specific to Rivkah's family that Yitzchak wished to be further integrated into Yaakov's family through a marriage to a daughter of Rivkah's brother Lavan. See Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky, Emet L'Yaakov, Bereishit 28:8.

2) My statement in the Insight that Esav totally missed the point. What else could he do? The commentators speak of the fact that Esav did not divorce his Canaanite wives but, even if one was obligated to listen to a father in regard to a command not to marry an inappropriate women such as these Canaanite women (and there are those who maintain that even though a father generally cannot intervene in a son's choice of a mate, in regard to a morally unsuitable wife the father can interfere), it could still be questionable if Esav should divorce his wives.